Photographer of the Century - Mr. Yip Cheong-Fun

On 22 Aug 06, as I was walking with the Channel-8 cameraman, I shooting the interesting targets and he shooting me, I discovered a new stall. It might not be new and it has been quite a while since my last walk along Pagoda St, especially during high noon. There I came face to face with the picture of Mr. Yip Cheong-Fun and his wonderful photos, and Mr. Andrew Yip who was manning the stall, just outside the Chinatown Heritage Museum.

Here for sale were many great works of art by Mr. Yip Cheong-Fun. It reminded me of the young days when I would walk all the way from Chinatown to the then National Library - remember the brick building? - where they would have the Photographic Salon organised by the Singapore Photographic Society, that would come with a slide show, and then, back.

If you were a resident of Chinatown, you would find Mr. Yip Cheong-Fun's photos nostalgic, scenes that could only come back in flashes as your memory waves hit them. Ah, but now, perhaps, you could bring one home (buy I mean) to remind you, and possibly tell your grandchildren or grandnephews or nieces, about those days in this place call Niu Che Sui, more popularly known as Gnou Chair Shui or Gu Chia Chwee.

If you are not, or if you are a visitor, or if this is beyond your time, these are great pictures worth keeping and looking at the Chinatown heritage. Of course, Mr. Yip had also taken many pictures of different parts of Singapore.

Thanks to Mr. Andrew Yip's generosity, I have taken quite a number of pictures of the pictures, well, just to give you a glimpse. On sale were also the Asian Geo-magazine issue 4/2006 which has some reproductions of the pictures as well as small booklets (in English edition as well as Chinese edition) entitled "Singapore Chinatown in Pictures" by Andre W. Keye with pictures by Mr. Yip Cheong-Fun.And in case you do not know who Mr. Yip Cheong-Fun is, he has been an outstanding photographer in Singapore and has been elected "Outstanding Photographer of the Century" by the Photographic Society of New York, specialist in "seascapes". He was also the recipient of the Cultural Medallion of Singapore (1984).

Well, let his pictures convince you.If you need more information, you can reach Mr. Andrew Yip at andrewyip181@hotmail.com.

Recently, the Singapore Heritage Society with the National Library Board (NLB) staged an exhibition of Mr. Yip Cheong Fun's works.